‘Kathleen Is Here’: Raindance Review

Dir/scr: Eva Birthistle. Ireland. 2023. 92 mins

Actor Eva Birthistle makes an impressive start to her feature directing career with this psychologically complex and tense Irish drama focused on a teenager fresh out of the care system. Expanding on her 2020 short Kathleen Was Here, which also starred charismatic up-and-comer Hazel Doupe (You Are Not My Mother) in the lead, the writer/director offers a combination of raw realism and tough-love empathy that recalls the early work of Andrea Arnold. 

 Forthright about the issues it is tackling without wallowing in them

Although the subject is gritty, Ae Fond Kiss and Bad Sisters star Birthistle manages to maintain a thread of hopefulness amid the melancholy, meaning Kathleen Is Here feels forthright about the issues it is tackling without wallowing in them. This is a character study rather than a neo-realist examination of the care system, and strong performances and a gripping slide towards a tale of obsession should catch the attention of distributors after its world premiere at Raindance.

The idea of a “fresh start” rings hollow for 18-year-old Kathleen (Doupe, a Screen Star Of Tomorrow in 2022) – whose life has been marked by a succession of them at various foster homes – as she returns to the house she shared as a young child with her now-dead alcoholic mum (Toni O’Rourke, glimpsed briefly in well incorporated flashbacks and home video), in the fictional rural Irish small town of Kilcarren. Her social worker Damian (Aaron Monaghan) tells her it’s “time to be a grown up”, but as we see Kathleen try to grapple with life on her own, it begs the question of whether she has ever truly had the chance to be a child.

The general look captured by cinematographer Burschi Wojnar, also returning from Kathleen Was Here, is cool and bleak. It’s not that the house Kathleen has moved into is awful, it’s just unremarkable and basic, the strip lights in the kitchen, yellowing net curtains and dripping tap carrying echoes of the neglect Kathleen also experienced. Work stacking shelves at the local supermarket brings a potential friend, the celeb-loving Yvonne (Liadan Dunlea), but it’s new neighbour Dee (Clare Dunne) who Kathleen immediately takes a shine to.

Dee, who has a pre-teen son Conor (James McGowan) with husband Rory (Peter Coonan), is sympathetic towards Kathleen for reasons that are gradually revealed to be more intricate than may first appear, inviting the youngster over for dinner and generally lending a friendly ear. It is soon apparent that any hint of rejection is like poison to the teenager, who has a tendency to lash out. Kathleen also retreats into a fictional realm for comfort, as she lies to those around her about her childhood and films Kardashian-style videos around her home under the alias of ‘Kimmie’. 

Birthistle doesn’t labour the point and she also deploys memories of Kathleen’s mum judiciously, so that we see enough to get the picture without losing the tense focus on here and now. As Kathleen bonds with Dee over makeovers and meals, Doupe captures her inner conflict, lacing the childlike hopefulness of her character with the watchful anxiety of someone who has been taught that good things don’t last. Kathleen’s friendship with Dee comes loaded with all sorts of possibilities – both positive and negative – and the idea of turning fantasy into fact offers a dangerous allure. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly for an actor-turned-director, Birthistle gives her actors time and space to deliver. A chat between Dee and Kathleen in a car as the rain beats down is allowed to gather intensity and she also pays attention to body language and proximity, allowing the physical closeness between two women to take on a charge. As a screenwriter, Birthistle imbues both characters with rich emotional detail so that the women’s relationship is far from a one-way street. Kathleen’s ambiguity towards Conor is also used as a potential flashpoint in a film that carries a general unease about what the unpredictable teenager might do at the same time as refusing to sit in judgement over her because of it. Even when Kathleen is on the brink of bad choices, Birthistle ensures we still care.